Exclusive: Firm close to insolvency says using £3bn loan to pay ‘substantial’ bonuses is vital to retain senior managers
Ministers plan to use new powers to block bosses from Thames Water taking bonuses worth hundreds of thousands of pounds as the company fights for survival, the Guardian can reveal.
Britain’s biggest water company admitted this week that senior managers are in line for “substantial” bonuses linked to an emergency £3bn loan.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/15/2025 - 13:46
05/15/2025 - 12:30
Ministers must resist pressure to relax environmental standards in the rush for new housing
Almost two decades after the last Labour government announced a zero carbon homes standard, and with the breaking of temperature records around the world now so normal as to seem routine, it ought to be uncontroversial that new buildings should be as environmentally friendly as possible. Given everything we know about global heating, and the law obliging the UK to reach net zero by 2050, it is disturbing that even the basics of promoting energy security and efficiency continue to be questioned.
But that is the situation Britain faces, as the government lays the ground for a housebuilding spree that it hopes will last for the rest of this parliament (as planning is devolved, the target of 1.5m new homes is for England only). Much of the blame for this discouraging state of affairs lies with the Tories, who delayed progress towards sustainability by scrapping environmental rules, leading to a disgraceful proliferation of new developments where the houses do not even have solar panels on the roofs.
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05/15/2025 - 11:37
As avian numbers plunge, activists demand action to save birds from crashing into high-rise blocks
The wren’s legs were tucked delicately underneath its diminutive body, slumped on its side as if asleep. If it wasn’t lying on the bare concrete of a Texas street, there would be few clues that it had endured a crunching, violent death.
The bird had flown headfirst into the Bank of America building, a 72-storey modernist skyscraper in the heart of Dallas. Its corpse was catalogued by volunteers who seek to document the toll of birds that strike the glass, metal and concrete structures festooned with bewildering lights that form the skylines of our cities.
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05/15/2025 - 10:00
Egg-laying monotremes have no nipples, so young rub their beaks against ‘milk patch’ to get milk from mother’s skin
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When echidna mothers nurse their young, known as puggles, the microbiome of their pouch changes to protect their babies in their first weeks of life, new research has found.
These first few weeks are critical for puggles. At this early developmental stage, they are tiny – roughly the size of a 5-cent coin – and vulnerable.
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05/15/2025 - 10:00
Organisation receives $2.3m from the Victorian government but has projected operation costs of $10.8m this year
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The RSPCA has warned it may not be able to investigate animal cruelty complaints against horses unless it receives more funding, as it reports a surge in the number of horses subject to cruelty complaints in the past 12 months.
As drought conditions continue in Victoria, RSPCA Victoria said it had received almost 800 animal cruelty reports concerning horses this financial year, a 37% increase on the number of reports received at this point last year.
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05/15/2025 - 10:00
Former independent MP accuses division of throwing ‘good money after bad only to see our native wildlife suffer’
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The native forest logging division of the New South Wales government’s forestry agency has posted a half-yearly loss of almost $15m, prompting renewed questions about the industry’s economic viability.
The half-year report for 2024-25, tabled in the state’s parliament last week, shows the hardwood forests division lost $14.9m, which is $9m more than the agency had projected – taking the division’s total losses since 2020 to $87m.
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05/15/2025 - 08:21
Pfas are a group of thousands of chemicals that are used for their non-stick and water-resistant properties. They are often refered to as 'forever chemicals' because they can take thousands of years to break down. Pfas are being found in so many everyday items that it's starting to feel like they are everywhere - non-stick frying pans, waterproof mascaras, stain-resistant clothing, packaging for takeaway food items. Pfas are even in our food, our drinking water and in the rain. Josh Toussaint-Strauss talks to Leana Hosea and Rachel Salvidge of Watershed investigations, a nonprofit that works to expose the causes behind Pfas contamination. Together they discuss what the spread of Pfas means for our health and the environment, and what can be done to get rid of them or at least limit our exposure.
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05/15/2025 - 08:00
The EPA is attempting actions that violate the law, some say, and Biden administration’s progress can’t be fully undone
The Trump administration has announced it would attempt to kill some of the strong new Pfas “forever chemical” drinking water limits set in April 2024.
While the moves would deliver a clear win for the US chemical and water utility industries, it is less clear whether the action will be successful, what it means longterm for the safety of the US’s drinking water, and its impact on progress in addressing forever chemical pollution.
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05/15/2025 - 08:00
Hanford made the plutonium for US atomic bombs, and its radioactive waste must be dealt with. Enter Elon Musk
In the bustling rural city of Richland, in south-eastern Washington, the signs of a nuclear past are all around.
A small museum explains its role in the Manhattan Project and its “singular mission – [to] develop the world’s first atomic bomb before the enemy might do the same”. The city’s high school sports team is still known as the Bombers, with a logo that consists of the letter R set with a mushroom cloud.
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05/15/2025 - 06:34
Winning images from the 2025 Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Environmental Photography award, selected from 10,000 images submitted globally. The contest aims to reward photographers who put their creativity to good use in raising awareness of the importance of environmental protection
Shortlisted exhibited in Monaco from 3 June to 31 July 2025 then touring in various locations around the world
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